ISLAMABAD: The Senate Defence Committee was informed on Friday that Afghanistan was delaying finalisation of a new border coordination mechanism.

Speaking at a meeting of the committee chaired by Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed, senior defence officials said that there were political impe diment s on the Afghan side and the authorities there were not very receptive to the idea of managing the border.

Pakistan, one of the officials said, was very keen to get the new arrangement implemented.

The two countries do not have any mechanism for coordination on the border since the tripartite commission completed its mandate following the end of International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan`s (ISAF) mission in December last year.

Border clashes between Pakistan and Afghan security forces have increased in the absence of a coordination mechanism.

According to a defence official, 132 violations were committed by Afghan security forces on the PakAfghan border this year in which 18 Pakistani soldiers lost their lives.

Border coordination has long been under discussion, but no concrete progress could be made.

Afghan leaders have always complained of crossborder movement of militants, but balked at proposals for working in coordination for better border control. Afghans do not recognise Durand Line as an international border and the government lacks the political will to settle the controversy.

Speaking about the eastern border, defence officials said that relations between Pakistan and India had worsened since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power and Indian forces had repeatedly violated the ceasefire the two countries had agreed to follow in 2003.

This year Indian security forces committed 247 ceasefire violations -163 on the Line of Control and 84 along the Working Boundary in which 39 civilians have been killed and another 150 injured.The Working Boundary and Line of Control are currently quiet and the director generals of military operations on both sides were regularly conversing over hotline every Tuesday, according to a defence official.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a statement issued after his meeting with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Paris on the sidelines of Climate Change Summit said: `Pakistan is prepared to hold serious discussions on better border management so that cross-border movement of terrorists can be contained. It is important to finalise border SOPs as early as possible.

PILOT`S DEATH: The SenateDefence Committee, meanwhile, has recommended the `Gallantry Award` for Flying Officer Marium Mukhtiar, who died in an air crash on Nov 27 during a training mission.

The 23-year-old pilot became the first woman pilot of Pakistan Air Force to die in a crash.

Mushahid Hussain informed the committee that one of the possible reasons why Marium lost her life was that she delayed her ejection to prevent the possibility of the plane that had developed a technical fault from crashing in a school.

COMEPNSATION PACKAGE: The defence ministry briefed the committee, which had sought details of the compensation beinggiven to families of those killed in the Army Public School attack, that three compensation packages had been approved and completed, including one each from the federal government, Pakistan Army and the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa government.

The federal government has provided Rs183 million to relatives of those who lost their lives in the attack, including a lump-sum grant of Rs3 million as monetary compensation, an education grant for children`s study for 10 years and a housing construction grant of Rs5 million per person.

Pakistan Army has arranged Umrah for the next of kin to 147 per-sons, free education to civilian kin of shaheed students, as well as jobs for the next of kin relatives plus admission in cadet colleges for the injured students as well as visits to friendly countries, like China, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Oman, Tajikistan and the US.

The KP government has provided a compensation and assistance package amounting to Rs411 million which includes Rs2 million for the relatives of each dead and Gallantry Awards for all as well as compensation to those who suffered injuries.

All the 122 shuhada will have government schools named after each of them in all the provinces.